The sixth MOVE webinar, moderated by the University of Trento (Italy) and organized in coordination with the University of La Laguna (ULL, Spain) and the Regional Fund for Science and Technology of The Azores (FRCT, Portugal) took place on January 21, 2021. It focused on the regional case study of La Réunion Island in which an illustrative overview of ecosystem services from the terrestrial and marine domain was provided.
After an introductory presentation by Enrique Casas (ULL) on the assessment and validation of mapping tools in the seven MOVE case studies, Erwann Lagabrielle (University of La Réunion) presented the main findings from La Réunion. Main topics covered included the use of large temporal open-access remote sensing data (MODIS) and levels of invasion of pristine vegetation (GCEIP data) to delineate habitat units for terrestrial and marine ecosystems. These habitat units were used a spatial reference to assess and evaluate a subset of ecosystem services belonging to three main categories: provisioning services (sea fishing), regulation and maintenance services (marine and terrestrial carbon sequestration, regulation of coastal erosion) and cultural services (coastal tourism activities). Methods to conduct this economic valuation process included net factor income value, replacement cost, consumer surplus-based value, damage cost, and market values.
For the final part of the webinar, preliminary results were linked to the impacts of local anthropogenic pressures and climate change and discussions centred around possible ways of improving MAES methods as well as implications for shaping marine and terrestrial spatial planning policies in La Réunion.
Fifty-five participants attended this digital event. A report of their institutional profiles showed that this had been the most heterogenous webinar as most attendees (74%) were members from research communities and the academic world from very diverse areas of the world.
